Book IV:—Kentucky
Chapter 1:
Perryville.
THE defeats of Pope in Virginia, followed by the invasion of Maryland, had reawakened the aggressive ardor of the Confederates in the West.
Believing that Baltimore, Washington and Philadelphia were already in the power of Lee, both soldiers and officers in Bragg's army dreamed in their turn of the conquest of Cincinnati and Louisville, the deliverance of Nashville, Memphis, and even of New Orleans.
The secessionists, who were numerous in Kentucky and in the majority in Tennessee, were becoming bolder every day; the expeditions of Morgan and Forrest during the month of July, 1862, had restored all their confidence.
These two daring partisans had admirably opened the way for the campaign which their commander was contemplating, and had overrun the States he intended to invade, like a sudden and subtle blast which penetrates the forest and then vanishes before some great storm of which it is the certain precursor.
But we must resume our narrative from the early days of July.
We have said that Buell's army, drawn up a little in rear of the right bank of the Tennessee, rested its right wing upon Huntsville and Athens, while its left extended from Stevenson to opposite Chattanooga.
Its supplies were obtained through the two railroads which leave Nashville, one for Athens, the other for Stevenson.
The capital of Tennessee was therefore the centre of his depots, which in turn could only be supplied from the Northern States, depending entirely for that purpose upon the railroad coming from Bowling Green and Louisville.
In fact, the waters of the Cumberland were then too low for navigation, and the
